Medicaid/Badgercare Basic program now to expensive for the poor it was designed for.

In the upside down world of Republican politics and social engineering, those individuals and families too poor to buy health insurance are now too poor to buy health insurance designed for those too poor to buy insurance.

And here’s the clincher: Due to premium increases by the Walker administration, enrollment went down, forcing the administration to increase premiums again and again to keep the program running because it had too fewer people. This is fiscal idiocy and more proof Republicans say they hate government because they don't know how run worth a damn.  

WSJ: State Department of Health Services Dennis Smith said declining enrollment in the health insurance program is forcing increases in the monthly premiums for those remaining in it.

They have never understood the benefits of group insurance, which brings down the overall cost per enrollee while creating a larger pool of money...aw, never mind.

Incredibly, here’s the real story of outrageously bad management:

More than 3,500 people on the state's health insurance program for low-income adults now have to pay sharply higher premiums — more than double what they were paying at the beginning of the year. The approximately 3,552 people on the program for adults without young children, known as BadgerCare Basic, are required to pay premiums of $325 as of Nov. 1. Those November payments were due on Wednesday.

How did that happen in just 10 months?

Premiums in the Basic program, developed under former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, had been about $130 early in 2011. But much of the funding for the program, about 40 percent, came from a federal grant, Smith said. In March, health officials announced a freeze on new enrollment and increased premiums to $200. Then enrollment decreased by about 25 percent from 6,000 to about 4,500, Smith said, and as a result premiums again increased to $250 by Sept. 1.

But it gets WORSE: Guess who “balanced the state budget” by leaving Badgercare Basic off the books?

"Given that no state funding was appropriated to support this program and that federal support will be unavailable for claims in the future, the department continues to closely monitor program expenditures and revenues," Smith wrote.

Republicans saw this coming,knew the fed part wouldn't be there, and left this disaster in place so they could claim a balanced budget.  Hooray?